Revol One Breakthrough Annuity Account MYGA

The short version: it targets after-tax, fixed annuity money that isn’t earmarked purely for retirement — the fund for a future home purchase, a business opportunity, a kid’s wedding, or simply money you want growing at a guaranteed rate without a decade-long lockup. Below, we walk through exactly how it works, what makes it different from both a CD and a traditional deferred annuity, and — because this is the part that actually matters most before you apply — the honest, non-buried truth about its tax treatment claim.

BreakThrough Annuity Account MYGA — Product Highlights

Interest rates, riders, and rate reductions for optional riders vary and are set at issue — ask us for a current rate sheet for your state and guarantee period.

What Actually Separates This From the CD You’re Renewing

A CD and a MYGA solve the same basic problem — a guaranteed rate for a fixed term — through two structurally different products, and it’s worth understanding that difference before assuming they’re interchangeable. MYGAs and CDs compare on several dimensions that rarely get explained side by side: CDs are bank or credit union deposit products, insured by the FDIC or NCUA up to applicable limits. The BreakThrough Annuity Account is an insurance product, backed instead by the claims-paying ability and reserves of Revol One Insurance Company — which is exactly why the AM Best rating above matters as much as it does.

In exchange for giving up FDIC/NCUA insurance, MYGAs like this one generally offer higher guaranteed fixed rates than what’s available on most bank CDs of comparable term, plus features banks simply don’t build into a CD at all: a contractual death benefit that bypasses probate when a beneficiary is named, and the option to annuitize into guaranteed lifetime income later if you want it. If you’re currently sitting on CD money you’ve been meaning to move, both transferring a maturing CD into an annuity and the mechanics of how that transfer actually works are more straightforward than most people expect — it doesn’t require touching the funds yourself or triggering a taxable event on money that’s already been taxed.

The Trade-Off Nobody Should Skip Past: Annual Taxation Instead of Deferral

Here’s the part of this product that deserves your full attention, because it cuts against how most people assume annuities work. Traditional non-qualified annuity taxation defers taxes on growth until you actually withdraw money — that deferral is usually the headline selling point of an annuity. The BreakThrough Annuity Account does not work that way. Interest credited to the contract is taxed annually, in the year it’s earned, whether or not you actually withdraw it. You’ll receive a 1099 each year reporting that interest as taxable income, the same way you already do with a CD.

This isn’t a flaw buried in fine print — it’s the deliberate trade the whole product is built around, and understanding how annuities are typically taxed elsewhere makes the contrast clear. You give up tax deferral. In exchange, you get out from under a restriction that comes bundled with that deferral: the IRS 10% early withdrawal penalty on gains taken before age 59½, which is the very next section, and the one we want to be completely straight with you about.

The 10% Early Withdrawal Penalty Claim — Explained Honestly, Not Glossed Over

Most non-qualified deferred annuities tie their tax-deferral benefit to a real restriction: under IRC Section 72(q), gains withdrawn before age 59½ generally trigger a 10% federal early withdrawal penalty on top of ordinary income tax, the same way annuity free withdrawal rules typically work. Revol One Financial’s position is that because the BreakThrough Annuity Account taxes interest annually as it’s earned rather than deferring it, the contract falls outside the structure that triggers that IRS penalty in the first place — meaning gains can generally be withdrawn before age 59½ without the 10% penalty applying.

We want to be direct with you about exactly how settled that claim is, because it matters to your decision: there is no IRS private letter ruling confirming that the BreakThrough Annuity Account is exempt from the 10% early withdrawal penalty. The carrier states this explicitly, more than once, in its own product materials. This is Revol One Financial’s own current interpretation of how the tax code applies to this contract’s structure — a reasonable, deliberately engineered interpretation, but an unconfirmed one, not a settled ruling from the IRS itself. Tax law can also be interpreted differently by different tax professionals, and interpretations can be challenged or change. Before you rely on this feature as a reason to choose this product, we strongly recommend you review the specifics with a qualified tax advisor of your own — this is exactly the kind of detail that shouldn’t be taken on faith from any brochure, including ours.

What withdrawals from this contract are not automatically exempt from: ordinary state and federal income tax on the taxable gain, and — separately from the IRS penalty question — the contract’s own surrender charges and market value adjustment if you withdraw more than the penalty-free amount during the guarantee period. Those are covered next.

Surrender Charges and Market Value Adjustments, In Plain Terms

Like essentially every MYGA on the market, the BreakThrough Annuity Account applies a surrender charge if you take out more than the permitted free withdrawal amount before your Interest Guarantee Period ends. Unlike a CD’s flat early-withdrawal fee, that charge follows a declining schedule tied to how many contract years remain, and it can be paired with a Market Value Adjustment (MVA) — a separate mechanism, explained further below, that can move the amount you receive up or down depending on where interest rates have moved since your contract was issued. Reviewing how surrender charges and MVAs interact generally, and specifically how surrender charge schedules are structured, will help this table make more sense at a glance:

A 10-year contract’s charge falls to 0% starting in contract year 11. State variations may apply to this schedule. A new schedule applies if you renew into a new Interest Guarantee Period, and the first 30 days of any renewal period carry no surrender charge or MVA.

The MVA is the part people find least intuitive, so here’s the plain-language version: it’s a separate adjustment, applied only when a surrender charge also applies, that can move your payout up or down based on how interest rates have shifted since your contract started. Broadly speaking, if rates have fallen since your Interest Guarantee Period began, the MVA works in your favor and increases what you receive; if rates have risen, it works against you and reduces what you receive. In no case, regardless of surrender charges or a negative MVA, can your Cash Surrender Value fall below the contract’s Guaranteed Minimum Cash Surrender Value — a nonforfeiture floor set by state insurance law, not by the carrier’s discretion.

The contract also includes an optional Free Partial Surrender Rider (detailed further down) that lets you withdraw up to your annual interest-earnings potential each year without triggering any surrender charge or MVA at all — worth knowing about if liquidity during the guarantee period matters to you.

Death Benefit and Beneficiary Flexibility

Unlike a CD, which simply becomes part of an estate or payable-on-death account, this contract carries a built-in death benefit with no separate election required. If you pass away while the contract is in force, your named beneficiaries receive a death benefit equal to your Cash Surrender Value (or the Guaranteed Minimum Cash Surrender Value, if that’s higher) — a distinction worth understanding if you’re weighing this against other options, since not every annuity structures its death benefit the same way.

Where this contract stands out is beneficiary flexibility. You can name multiple beneficiaries, and each one independently decides how to proceed after your death — receive their portion as a lump-sum death benefit payout, or continue their share of the contract forward as a new owner under the contract’s terms. That means a single contract can be split and carried forward across several family members rather than forcing one all-or-nothing outcome, which is a meaningfully different experience than what typically happens to an annuity at death under a more rigid, single-beneficiary structure. A death benefit paid this way is also tax-efficient for beneficiaries in a specific sense: because the underlying interest has already been taxed annually as it accrued, beneficiaries generally owe tax only on interest earned since the most recent tax filing — not on years of deferred, untaxed growth all at once.

Optional Riders: Free Partial Surrender and Enhanced Death Benefit

Two optional riders can be elected at the time of purchase. Electing either one reduces your guaranteed fixed interest rate somewhat — ask us for the current rate sheet to see the exact trade-off for your state and guarantee period.

The Free Partial Surrender Rider lets you withdraw, each contract year, up to an amount equal to your Accumulation Value at the start of that year multiplied by your guaranteed fixed interest rate — in effect, your annual interest-earnings potential — without triggering any surrender charge or MVA (including forfeiting a positive MVA you’d otherwise be entitled to). It’s a meaningful option if you expect to want access to your interest income periodically rather than letting it fully compound and lock away for the whole guarantee period.

The Enhanced Death Benefit Rider changes what your beneficiaries receive at death from the Cash Surrender Value (which can be reduced by surrender charges and a negative MVA) to the full Accumulation Value, with any surrender charges and MVA waived entirely on that death benefit payout. Electing this rider also automatically bundles in, at no additional rate reduction, a Nursing Home Rider and a Terminal Illness Rider. Those two riders waive surrender charges and MVA if you’re confined to a nursing home for at least 90 consecutive days (or a total of 90 days with no more than a 6-month gap between related confinements), or if you’re diagnosed as terminally ill and not expected to live more than 12 months, provided a qualified physician documents it. Neither of these riders is long-term care insurance or a substitute for it — they simply waive the exit costs on your own contract if one of those events happens to you.

Renewal Options at the End of Your Guarantee Period

At the end of your Interest Guarantee Period, you’re notified at least 15 days in advance and given a choice between three paths: renew into a new guarantee period of the same length at a new fixed rate (the default if you don’t actively choose), renew into a different available guarantee period length at its own new fixed rate, or roll into a daily fixed-rate account with no surrender charges or MVA at all (the default after your second or any later renewal, if you again make no election). Whichever you choose, the first 30 days of any new Interest Guarantee Period carry no surrender charge and no MVA — giving you a genuine window to move funds elsewhere penalty-free if a better opportunity has come along, including via a 1035 exchange into another annuity without triggering a taxable event on any gain that hasn’t already been recognized.

Who Stands Behind the Contract: Revol One Insurance Company

Revol One Insurance Company does business under the marketing name Revol One Financial, is domiciled in Michigan, and maintains administrative offices in Urbandale, Iowa. The company holds insurance licenses across most of the country but is not currently authorized to conduct business in New York, and the BreakThrough Annuity Account MYGA is separately not currently available in California. As detailed in the disclosure box above, AM Best has assigned the company a Financial Strength Rating of B++ (Good) and a Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of “bbb” (Good), with a positive rating outlook — meaning AM Best’s own assessment is that the trend in the company’s underlying fundamentals is favorable, even though the current rating sits below the A- threshold some buyers require.

Where the BreakThrough Annuity Account Fits — and Where It Doesn’t

This contract tends to make the most sense for someone who has after-tax, non-qualified money sitting in CDs or a similar guaranteed-rate vehicle, wants a generally higher guaranteed fixed rate than typical CD offerings, is comfortable paying tax annually on interest as it’s earned rather than deferring it, and values the possibility of penalty-free access to gains before age 59½ enough to accept that the tax treatment behind that access is the carrier’s own interpretation rather than an IRS-confirmed ruling.

It tends to make less sense for retirement-specific dollars where tax deferral is the primary goal, for anyone who wants the simplicity of FDIC/NCUA-insured principal above all else, or for buyers who require a carrier rated A- or higher by AM Best. If any of those describe your situation better, we can walk you through how to think through which annuity actually fits your goals — including options from higher-rated carriers that may be a better structural or ratings match.